2014 Jaguar F-Type

If you're like me – and our demographics suggests you are – you've probably never seen a new Jaguar sportscar at your local showroom. I'm 36, and it hasn't happened in my lifetime... and not by a little bit. Oh, there have been a string of XK coupes and convertibles, and as of late, there have even been some genuine high-performance specials – namely the R, R-S and R-S GT models – but their basis has always been the 2+2 grand tourer shell, not a lighter and smaller footprint with more intrinsic sporting intent. The truth is that it's been a half-century since Jaguar introduced a proper new sportscar. Today, most people know the brand strictly as a purveyor of wood- and hide-lined luxury sedans.

In fact, if you're not an enthusiast with some appreciation for the marque's history, it's a bit odd to hear Jaguar executives proclaim that they are a sportscar company and always have been. By their reckoning, the 2014 F-Type seen here is in fact a return to form, a Rip Van Winkled brand pillar reanimated and reimagined to take center stage. It's a sentiment that must be particularly odd for car shoppers in developing markets like China, where Jaguar hasn't even been selling cars for very long. Yet because the original 1961 E-Type is perhaps the most gorgeous car ever to lay ply on the world's roads, we're prepared to cut them some slack.

Given a desire to project its lengthy and distinguished (if distant) sportscar history into the present, we couldn't really have blamed Jaguar if they decided to just update the E-Type's visuals and pull what's underneath into modernity, à la Ford GT. (In fact, there's already a well-respected British outfit, Eagle, commanding big dollars for doing largely the same thing). There's also a middle 'homage' path – think 1956 BMW 507 begets 2000 Z8 roadster. Yet Jaguar hasn't taken the easy way out and created a doppelganger or even a historical pastiche. Yes, if you look hard enough, you'll find subtle nods to the E-Type, but they aren't immediately obvious. In fact, Jaguar has embarked on nothing short of a radical design overhaul of its entire lineup over the last half-decade or so (beginning with 2008's XF sedan) in an effort to upend its image as traditional luxury transport for the world's elderly elite.